The present invention relates to a database structure and method of processing project data and, more particularly, to an automated package information and configuration communication process for communicating product information upstream to a sales department or the like and a customer, project specific information downstream to project execution, direct and automate a business process, and maintain historical data on all projects and revisions.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a business process flow. Generally, in an inquiry to order (ITO) process, a sales team first interfaces with a customer, followed by a request for quote (RFQ) being submitted to the sales support group. Sales support would then break the RFQ into commercial and technical issues, and the technical issues (including a customer specification) would be submitted to the product management group.
The product management group would then review the customer specification and create two documents: (1) a production data sheet (PDS) presenting the scope of supply, and (2) a budget that identifies the cost to manufacture the defined scope based on the customer request. Both documents have generally been configured using known spreadsheet computer programs. These spreadsheets are then submitted to sales support via an iterative process until the scope of the project is well defined and accurate. A proposal would then be generated by sales support and submitted to the customer for review.
Assuming the company wins the bid, an agreement in principle (AIP) or contract will be signed and submitted along with a sales order summary (SOS) document that is also based on the project scope, to product management group for final review and the hand-over meeting (HOM) to OTR. The HOM consists of the project team meeting and reviewing the numerous documents (including the PDS, budget, SOS and an open items document among others) to verify that the project scope is accurate, attainable and consistent from document to document. A final revision is made to the documentation, and the resulting information is submitted to project management for execution.
Project management then meets directly with the customer to begin addressing the open items, revising PDS and SOS documents, and releasing the information to engineering. Engineering would then review the official documents and create a features and options document detailing what drawings are required to manufacture and assemble the package.
In addition to the multiple points of data entry, excessive numbers of documents presenting information based on a single scope of supply are required, multiple document translations and hours of unnecessary work are also required, and there exist no running budget, open item metrics, project metrics, business impact measurements or budgetary analysis capabilities within the current process.
Package configuration and information is thus scattered across numerous documents that are often identified as inconsistent, inaccurate and/or out-of-date. Moreover, the multiple documents are time consuming to create and maintain and they do not allow for statistical analysis facilitating future process improvement.